Governor Newsom spending millions on recall

San Francisco CA

Description

Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies boosted the Democrat’s chances of beating the recall attempt by significantly outspending his opponents in August, putting more than $36 million into efforts that included TV advertising and social media, phone-banking, door-knocking and texting. The five top Republicans running to replace Newsom and pro-recall committees combined spent less than a third as much over the same period, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Thursday with the secretary of state’s office. Newsom, who enjoys an overwhelming fundraising advantage over his opponents, used that edge to stoke Democratic enthusiasm after a series of polls suggested his fellow partisans were less engaged than Republicans and others supporting the recall. More recently, polls show the governor has as much as a double-digit lead. And anti-recall forces have raised $72.4 million, more than double that of candidates and political committees backing the recall. The polls showed Larry Elder to be almost even with Newsom. “Democrats were rightly concerned that not enough Democratic voters were paying attention or caring about the recall. And as with most statewide elections, money does play a huge role, especially when it comes to television advertising,” said veteran GOP strategist Beth Miller, who worked for former Gov. Pete Wilson and unsuccessful 2010 Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina. Vice President Kalama Harris will be visiting California on behalf of Gov. Newsom signaling the democrats are pulling out all the stops on Newsom's campaign. You have to take a step back and pause and ask, in such a deeply blue state like California, who would have thought it was going to take this kind of money to move the needle and keep Newsom in office,” added Miller, who believes the governor will survive the recall. Recall backers say the financial difference doesn’t matter because the greater passion is on their side. “We had no money and we still got it on the ballot, and some polling showed us even,” said Anne Hyde Dunsmore, campaign manager for Rescue California, one of the main recall groups. She said that even if the effort is unsuccessful, it has many silver linings. “We caused [Newsom] to spend, we caused the Democratic Governors’ Assn. to spend. We’re draining resources for 2022, which is promising to be a miserable [election] year for the party that holds the White House,” Dunsmore said.